Replace idaapi.read_selection() with ida_kernwin.read_range_selection()

[Harding-Stardust]

Replace idaapi.read_selection with ida_kernwin.read_range_selection. Since is a much nicer API to use.

is_valid_selection, sel_start, sel_end = ida_kernwin.read_range_selection(None)

ida-minsc/misc/ui.py

Line 304 in af07f16

if newer and idaapi.read_selection(view, left, right):

[arizvisa]

Isn't the ui.current.selection function only returning the left and right boundaries? I'm not sure what else that read_range_selection exposes that makes it different from read_selection. Can you clarify?

Also, using ui.current.selection directly is entirely unnecessary. You should be able to get the exact same functionality using the database.address namespace since you're essentialy looking for an address range.

Example:

ui.current.address() == database.address()
ui.current.selection() == database.address.bounds()       # make sure you select a range

In all actuality, you should be able to use db.address for nearly everything.
If you want a list of addresses that are currently selected, the following two things are equivalent.

l, r = ui.current.selection()
for ea in range(l, r):
   ...

for ea in database.address():
   ...

Or if you want to feed a specific range to your addresses, you can do

bounds = database.address.bounds()
for ea in db.address(bounds):
   ...

for ea in db.address(start_ea, end_ea):
   ...

[Harding-Stardust]

So what I was trying to express was that you can replace: https://github.com/arizvisa/ida-minsc/blob/af07f167a0992aed3f3a2a1670593880baa57820/misc/ui.py#L299C9-L310C70
with the following code:

ok, ea_l, ea_r = ida_kernwin.read_range_selection(None)

[arizvisa]

There's many ways to transform code (or even regular words) in any and all language.. But, if the semantics are the same why would there be a need to change it?

For your consideration, though, that code was written back in 2018 as commit a921c01. This was back before the IDA 7.0 series which introduced read_range_selection. The code hasn't had to change because it never stopped working, so when it breaks... it will get updated. This is simply the natural lifecycle of all software. Hope this helps clarify the reasoning of why things are the way they are.